Aquaglide Chelan High-Pressure Inflatable Kayaks

Aquaglide Chelan High-Pressure Inflatable Kayaks

Aquaglide Chelan Inflatable Kayaks are designed for recreational touring on rivers, lakes and sea. They are great to paddle, with excellent stability and superb seats. Made from hyper-tough material they are also easy to fold up and dry – with no internal bladders!

FANTASTIC PRICES AT THE MOMENT, ALL IN STOCK, FAST DELIVERY!

High-pressure drop-stitch floor, for unmatched
stiffness, strength and stability

A really important feature of the Aquaglide Chelan inflatable kayaks is their high-pressure inflatable floors, made from a special drop stitch fabric, like that used to make inflatable paddleboards. You inflate them to 3-4 times more pressure than cheaper models which, as you might imagine, makes them far more rigid. There’s no banana-shaped “sag in the middle” on a Chelan.

Streamlined Touring Hull

Aquaglide Chelan Inflatable Kayaks are designed specifically for recreational touring. It’s not obligatory to go long distances of course, but these really are inflatable kayaks you can go places in – they cope well in waves but are not trying to cater to the surfing market. So they have much more streamlined ends than most inflatable kayaks; this reduces the tendency to get blown or knocked off course by wind and waves. And they are also much longer than most comparable capacity kayaks (1 person, 2 person etc), so there’s more room for your legs and they’ll go further, or faster, or both for the same effort. If all else is equal then a longer hull is a more efficient hull, whether you want to paddle half a mile or ten.

Industry Standard Skeg

Chelans have an excellent, easy-to-use skeg system – using the industry-standard US fin box – which again helps you to paddle straight.

Single-skin Duratex (reinforced PVC)
side tubes and outer hull

Aquaglide Chelan inflatable kayaks have ultra-tough “single skin” construction, which is actually a multi-layer fabric where the layers are all fused together as one. This is harder and more expensive to make but allows greater refinement of tube shape, and (just like the dropstitch floor) higher pressure inflation. In comparison, really cheap inflatable kayaks are made from much thinner PVC, basically a lilo with sides. And most mid-range (say £300-£700) inflatable kayaks are “double-skinned” ie with separate (lilo material) bladders inside nylon outer skins, which feels really tough but makes them almost impossible to dry out.

To emphasise that last point, a really big advantage of single-skin construction comes AFTER you’ve used the kayak: it’s much easier to dry out. Double skin kayaks take ages to dry out properly – up to a few days – so really you have to find somewhere to hang them up (not always easy). In contrast, single skin kayaks take a few minutes to dry; often you can get them dry at the water’s edge, before you put them away. If you leave a double skin kayak damp for more than a few days it will go mouldy and smell, and is then almost impossible to clean. A single skin kayak is quicker to dry, inherently less prone to mould, and easier to clean off if it does get mouldy. The Chelan kayaks’ single skin construction also means they are lighter, size- for-size, than double skin boats (particularly after the double skin has been afloat and absorbed some water!), and less “draggy” in the water.

The final key feature – your back and backside will notice if you sit in them for more than a few minutes! – are the really comfortable, supportive and ergonomic seats. The inflatable seat cushion means you can adjust your seated height and centre of gravity: more inflated (higher) for greatest comfort; less inflated (lower) for greater stability. The padded backrest has substantial and easily adjustable straps to give really good support to your lower back. It is not at all unusual amongst our customers for the seat to have been a significant factor in their purchase, making comments such as “the best kayak seat we’ve ever sat in!” Joking apart, the seats are very important in kayaks – if you’re uncomfortable you won’t want to use it.

The Aquaglide Chelan inflatable kayaks are right at the top of the inflatable kayak tree, and undeniably cost a bit more than most inflatable kayaks. Yes, even 10 times or more the price of some of them, but we wouldn’t really class the £100 ones in the same category (they should be called kayak- shape lilos). However we genuinely believe the Chelans’ superior features mean they represent good, in fact excellent long term value. They compare quite favourably with hard-shell sit-on-tops, yet you can still roll them up in a bag and put them in a cupboard.

Chelans are easily-driven and when you stop paddling will continue gliding… in most other inflatable kayaks when you stop paddling they simply stop dead.

At risk of over-emphasising this point… quite a high percentage of our Chelan customers have previously had the mid-range double skin type inflatable kayaks (eg Sevylor), and comment that their new Aquaglide Chelan is so much easier to paddle and keep straight. Plus a whole league easier to dry and put away after use.

We often speak to potential customers who say they’re “not that bothered about Performance”. And yes, some days we just want to potter about on the water too. But “better performance” can also mean “better safety”; perhaps a better word here is Efficiency. If you’re paddling one of the Aquaglide Chelan Inflatable Kayaks, for the same effort, you will go further or faster (or both), than you would with an inferior inflatable kayak. Equally, to achieve the same speed or distance, you will need to expend less effort. If, for example, you’ve had a lovely day out on the water, but are getting towards tired – and then the wind or tide goes against you – this can make a big difference. You might still be able to get home unaided, when in a lesser kayak you would have needed help.

Aquaglide Chelan Inflatable Kayaks have immensely tough construction, high pressure side tubes, and high pressure floors, meaning that they will continue to perform in “rougher-than-you- intended” conditions too. We must point out however that spending more on your boat doesn’t substitute for experience, knowledge and training – don’t exceed your comfort zone or ability, always wear a buoyancy aid, always tell someone else where you’re going and how long you expect to be.

This Chelan video review is in our opinion a good representative video review of an Aquaglide Chelan Tandem (earlier but shape-identical version of current Chelan 155). Note his favourable comments on the glide characteristics, lack of sag, and the soggy golden retriever jumping in and out without causing capsize!

We find increasing numbers of customers are buying Aquaglide Chelan Inflatable Kayaks either as tender to small yachts – where the crew is usually only one or two people – or secondary tender, and fun exploration boat, for larger yachts. In this scenario the “step down into it from higher up” stability is very important and in this respect the Chelans are very good (noting they are still kayaks, it’s never going to be like stepping into a 12ft RIB!). A kayak as a tender is much more compact to store than a dinghy, and there’s no need to carry an outboard motor. Being relatively long and narrow, with a skeg, if you wish to tow your Chelan it will do so very well, with minimal drag. Chelans are also easy to fold up, and much easier to dry out than double skin type (sometimes called “covered kayaks”). This latter point is important.